Violence and Security

US Approach to Islamism Shows Little Consistency

October 10, 2017

A new book by U.S. think tank experts claims that, aside from a tendency to prioritize realpolitik interests, the defining features of the evolution of American foreign policy engagement towards worldwide Islamist parties and movements has been lack of strategic cohesion and failure to combat the violent, radicalist forms of Islamism.
Iran Threatens US over Proposed Terrorist Designation

October 10, 2017

Discussions by the U.S. policymakers about containing Iran by designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization have provoked threats from Tehran that the theocratic regime will respond with "crushing, decisive" consequences for America's presence worldwide.
Islamist Militants Attack UN Base in Congo

October 10, 2017

Islamist militants active across the borders of Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo attacked Congolese military bases, killing UN peacekeepers and several civilians in an uptick of ongoing Islamist violence in East Africa.
NYC Terror Suspects Have IS Connections

October 10, 2017

U.S. federal prosecutors have revealed Islamic State (IS) connections in the charges against three men arrested in 2016 for plotting to use weapons of mass destruction to perpetrate terror attacks in New York City's Times Square and subway system.
American IS Fighters Raise Legal Questions

October 09, 2017

US officials are examining the case of an American citizen detained in Iraq as a captured Islamic State (IS) fighter to determine the judicial process applicable to Americans apprehended as IS combatants in Iraq and Syria.
IS, al-Qaeda Competition Shows Islamism’s Staying Power

October 06, 2017

The shifting strengths of the Islamic State (IS) caliphate and al-Qaeda militant networks in their Mideastern core territories of origin and control does not suggest a decline in the staying power of these groups, but rather, reveals the vitality and adaptability of radical Islamism as a globalized ideology and operating strategy committed to a long-view jihad.
UN Partners on Violent Extremism Prevention Program

October 06, 2017

The UN Development Programme has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Abu Dhabi-based International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism (Hedayah) to help develop national action plans on preventing violent extremism through an approach that includes security, development, and prevention elements.
Islamist Terror Groups Shift to Low-tech, High Impact Approach

October 06, 2017

Recent Islamist terror attacks in the West reflect a deliberate turn by global jihadi networks to low-tech, high impact attacks that rely on easily accessible weapons and tight-knit social networks, suggesting that governments must make improvements in intelligence sharing and public security planning, and make more stringent crackdowns on criminal activities related to migration flows.
Canadian Officials Charge Somali Refugee with IS Terror Attack

October 06, 2017

Canadian security officials have charged a Somali refugee with a history of Islamist sympathies with perpetrating a recent Islamic State (IS)-style terrorist attack, including the use of a knife and a U-Haul vehicle to wound a policeman and several civilians in Edmonton, Alberta.
"Virtual Caliphate" Doesn't Mean End of Islamic State

October 06, 2017

The shift to a "virtual caliphate" with the likely military defeat of the Islamic State (IS) in its core caliphate territories does not mean the termination of IS, but rather, implies a shift to cyber and online tactics and new battlefield theatres of operation, based on the resilience of IS' globalized struggle for territory and ideology in the name of the caliphate.